Happy Birthday Peter Jackson!
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 10:00AM 
In seems fitting yet not too obvious that Peter Jackson's birthday would be on Halloween. Imagine the costume fun one could cull from his films alone?
Since today is his half century mark, we couldn't not tip our pointy Gandalf hats to the man. Whether you're counting down the days until he returns to The Shire with The Hobbit films or wishing he'd move away from Tolkien and on to greener other pastures, it's worth checking in on the official Hobbit blog from month to month (though they sadly haven't had a production video since July and those were fun.)
Do you think The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (2013) will continue the Rings Oscar streak? Perhaps you're more doubtful like me... even if The Hobbit films are great won't AMPAS voters feel that 11 Oscars in February 2004 was more than enough?
I would rank his films like so.
- Heavenly Creatures (1994) -check out Melanie Lynskey's memoirs and our "Hit Me..." blog party if you're a fan of this brilliant hysteria.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
- King Kong (2005)
- The Frighteners (1996) ...a revisit is definitely in order. Would I like it more or less?)
- Meet the Feebles (1989)
- Forgotten Silver (1995)
- The Lovely Bones (2009)
P.S. I have not seen Bad Taste (1987) or Dead Alive (1992) but I'm quite certain I'd prefer them to The Lovely Bones.
You?
Reader Comments (9)
Up until this moment, I had actually willed myself into believing The Lovely Bones didn't happen.
I still like The Lovely Bones, which makes me sound a bit loopy but - there you go. I'm also incredibly doubtful about The Hobbit franchise, because I'm doubtful it will love it artistically, or critically which would just be a shame but I'm dubiously hopeful. I often forgo that Jackson made King Kong, and I feel more than a little bad that the film is so often thrashed. Jackson does a slew of good things with that movie, the least of which not being the great performance he manages to pull out of Naomi.
Nice list! My own would go like this...
1. LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Heavenly Creatures
3. LOTR: The Two Towers
4. LOTR: The Return of the King
5. King Kong
And then the rest would look like yours. I also need to revisit "The Frighteners". I remember as a teenager I thought it was corny and fun, but it still managed to creep me out.
I hope The Hobbit films are good, but I'm definitely nervous. The novel doesn't really seem to require two movies, and splitting the story that way seems like just another extension of Peter Jackson's worst instincts (edit yourself, PJ!). I think I noticed the problem first in ROTK, which might be why I'm one of the only people on the planet who prefers the second film to the third. I think the series is one of (slightly) diminishing returns, and I'd grade them A, A-, and B+ in order of release. The problem got worse in King Kong, which was still a darn good time (B+). And we all know what happened with The Lovely Bones.
On the other hand, the Tolkien nerd inside me is all like "OMG 2 Hobbitz moovies?! YESSS!"
So we'll see.
I've seen 5 of the individual films, but I consider all the LOTRs a single film. My rankings, with LOTR as a single film:
1. LOTR
2. Bad Taste
3. King Kong
And: Agree that I'll only believe Oscar buzz for The Hobbit when it happens. I'm guessing public pressure will force them to honour The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 (soaking up all the "we respect genre" votes) on some level, possibly all the way to a picture win, and 2013 will see them lean toward an indie film.
Also: Just saw Tree of Life. Agree wholeheartedly it's a B+. Unlike the other three Malick's I've seen it has neither a plot (Badlands, Days of Heaven) or an intellectual thesis (The Thin Red Line) going for it and quite a few of the visuals have little purpose in the character study. But, on the overall, had to give it a B+ just for the beauty. (Though, if it was 15 minutes shorter, I'd have given an A-.)
1. Heavenly Creatures
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Dead Alive
4. The Frighteners
5. King Kong
6. The Lovely Bones
He needs to find his groove back, not sure about the Hobbit movies...
I have a hard time blaming Jackson for The Lovely Bones considering the history of the production and the script and whatnot. Was it amazingly awful? Yes. But it was awful because the artistic risks it took were just so ineffective...I don't know. Jackson is still a good director and I have little doubt that The Hobbit movies will be satisfying.
Steve - then apparently I'm one of the others; i think the series reached it's high point with the second film (and I am not a fanatic, btw - I'll leave that to my brother - nor a hater.) We saw the third film in the theater expecting great things after the second, and found it a bit tedious.
The Lovely Bones was horrid, but Sairose made the movie at least bearable.
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